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<h2>Stream: <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/index.html">general</a></h2>
<h3>Topic: <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html">Licenses</a></h3>

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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243682041" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> ruster <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243682041">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:05)</a>:</h4>
<p>My crate has <code>license = "MIT"</code> in the <code>Cargo.toml</code> but there's no actual <code>LICENSE</code> file. Is my crate unlicensed? Or is this <code>license = "MIT"</code> alone sufficient to make the crate licensed?</p>



<a name="243682312"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243682312" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243682312">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:06)</a>:</h4>
<p><span class="user-mention" data-user-id="376093">@ruster</span> That's sufficient for your crate to be considered MIT-licensed. Occasionally, someone might complain that a license file isn't included, but legally the metadata in <code>Cargo.toml</code> is sufficient for people to rely on.</p>



<a name="243682352"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243682352" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243682352">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:06)</a>:</h4>
<p>(Disclaimer: I'm <em>not</em> a lawyer and that's <em>not</em> legal advice. I do work with licenses professionally, though.)</p>



<a name="243683234"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243683234" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> scottmcm <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243683234">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:13)</a>:</h4>
<p>I'm also not a lawyer, but it does seem like <code>license = "MIT"</code> would at very least give an easy case for a good-faith belief that that's how the author of the crate intended for it to be licensed, following common understanding of the name from <a href="https://github.com/spdx/license-list-data/tree/v3.11">https://github.com/spdx/license-list-data/tree/v3.11</a> and <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical</a> and such.</p>
<p>I might be tempted to send a PR to add the license file explicitly, though, if I was going to depend on the crate for something core to a commercial endeavour, just to remove all doubt about the exact text.</p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243683302" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> cuviper <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243683302">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:14)</a>:</h4>
<p>FWIW, Fedora packaging still wants a license file included</p>



<a name="243683381"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243683381" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> cuviper <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243683381">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:14)</a>:</h4>
<p>don't set <code>license-file</code> in Cargo.toml though, as that gets treated as "non-standard"<br>
<a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/8537">https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/8537</a></p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243683665" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> cuviper <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243683665">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:17)</a>:</h4>
<p><span class="user-mention" data-user-id="239881">@Josh Triplett</span> how do you square your advice with the MIT text itself?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The above copyright notice and this permission notice<br>
shall be included in all copies or substantial portions<br>
of the Software.</p>
</blockquote>



<a name="243684143"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684143" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684143">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:20)</a>:</h4>
<p><span class="user-mention" data-user-id="138448">@cuviper</span> It's vacuously true. You can't <em>delete</em> the license if someone else included it, but if you never included it in the first place, redistributing it preserves all licenses and license notices that were actually present.</p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684186" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684186">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:20)</a>:</h4>
<p>(Same rationale as if you don't include a copyright notice: "The above copyright notice" refers to nothing, so there's no obligation incurred.)</p>



<a name="243684332"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684332" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684332">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:21)</a>:</h4>
<p>I worked on an Open Source software and license review board, and we'd have happily approved the use and distribution of a piece of software that had a note saying "this is MIT" without a copy of the MIT license, as long as there wasn't an upstream project that included the license that was subsequently deleted.</p>



<a name="243684490"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684490" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> cuviper <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684490">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:22)</a>:</h4>
<p>but you're still relying on that permission to use that software at all...</p>



<a name="243684516"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684516" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> cuviper <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684516">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:22)</a>:</h4>
<p>seems like lawyers could argue that either way, but I don't really know</p>



<a name="243684554"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684554" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684554">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:23)</a>:</h4>
<p><code>license = "MIT"</code> seems quite clear about what permission is granted.</p>



<a name="243684640"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684640" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684640">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:23)</a>:</h4>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if Debian would add a copy of the MIT license to <code>debian/copyright</code>, but I think that's as much to do with Debian wanting to be self-contained without any external references.</p>



<a name="243684758"></a>
<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684758" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684758">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:24)</a>:</h4>
<p>In practice, though, it's easier to add a copy of the MIT license than to have the argument. :)</p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684777" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684777">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:24)</a>:</h4>
<p>I've certainly done that for some of my projects, if someone actually asks for it.</p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243684874" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Josh Triplett <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243684874">(Jun 23 2021 at 17:25)</a>:</h4>
<p>On a different note, I'm becoming increasingly enamored of <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT-0">https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT-0</a> , for exactly this reason.</p>



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<h4><a href="https://rust-lang.zulipchat.com#narrow/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses/near/243693592" class="zl"><img src="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/assets/img/zulip.svg" alt="view this post on Zulip" style="width:20px;height:20px;"></a> Lokathor <a href="https://rust-lang.github.io/zulip_archive/stream/122651-general/topic/Licenses.html#243693592">(Jun 23 2021 at 18:30)</a>:</h4>
<p>Ah, very close to the Zlib license that one.</p>



<hr><p>Last updated: Aug 07 2021 at 22:04 UTC</p>
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